Emily Blunt has explained how she made the “strange sounds” uttered by her character in the new movie Disclosure Day.
Emily Blunt’s Strange Sounds
The 43-year-old actress leads the cast of Steven Spielberg‘s new movie, playing a weather presenter who starts speaking in an alien language during a live TV broadcast. She’s now revealed she wanted to have a go at making the noises herself because she was “terrified” movie bosses might want to use AI for the task.
During an appearance on the YouTube talk show Hot Ones, Emily Blunt said, “Even kind of leading up to that moment where she starts speaking in this non-human language. It’s a four-minute oner that we shot that leads up to that moment where she’s gradually sort of disintegrating.”
“There’s various ways you could do it. You could go the AI route, which I’m a bit terrified of …”
“I thought I could make some really strange sounds. I said maybe I could come in and we’ll just do a range of weird sounds. And it’s what we did. I did sort of the clicking sounds, I did sort of humming sounds, consonant sounds, breathing, strange sounds … “
Emily Blunt went on to reveal the team put one microphone by her mouth and another next to her throat to capture the sounds she was making.
She added, “[It] captures it in a really weird way. And then the sound designer went away and created that weird sound.”
Spielberg’s Opinion on AI
Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg previously admitted he is “withholding judgment on AI,” but he’s happy for it to be used as a “tool” for moviemakers.
The 79-year-old filmmaker said on the IMO podcast, “I’m kind of withholding judgment on AI until I see really how it is being used.”
The Hollywood director observed that AI can be an effective tool “that can create and find solutions to medical issues” and in education. However, Spielberg is much more doubtful of AI’s capabilities in the creative industries.
The award-winning director explained, “Where I don’t love AI is where it takes a position, or there’s an empty chair at a writer’s table, and there’s six writers and an empty chair and there’s a computer in front of the empty chair and it is the seventh writer.”
“I’m not willing to substitute, you know, because I don’t really believe in its sentience. I don’t believe there is any substitute for the soul. I don’t think that is an algorithm that’s inventible, if there is such a word.”
“I think a computer that thinks it feels more than we feel is anathema to the way I was raised and how I’ll practice my own trade of producing and directing in the future.”
Not for Creativity
Spielberg believes AI can perform some “legwork” for people like himself. However, he noted that AI shouldn’t have “the final word on anything creative.”
He said. “I don’t want AI involved in that way. “If AI wants to help me find locations, that’s great. Saves us all a lot of legwork. But don’t tell me that I don’t have the right antagonist in this movie.”
“Don’t tell me how to write my dialogue for this character. Don’t tell me where the camera has to go. And also don’t tell me what the set should look like, unless AI is simply a tool in a large tool chest of the production designer and just one of many tools the production designer uses…”
He finished by saying, “Use AI as a tool, but do not use AI as the final word on anything creative. That’s where I draw the line.”